James Perry & Partners Estate Agents - Kickstart Scheme Case Study

Can you help kickstart a young person’s career?

Can you help young people to get the experience they need?

Can you offer someone at risk of long-term unemployment the opportunity to gain new skills?

Employers across Swale have already answered yes to the questions above. Following the covid pandemic, the Government pledged to support 16–24 year old’s at risk of long term unemployment, to get back in the workplace. Through the launch of the Kickstart scheme, employers have been provided with funding to offer positions for 25 hours a week, for up to 6 months. The placements offer individuals a valuable opportunity to gain new skills and employment experience. Since the launch of the scheme over 300 placements have been offered within a wide variety of sectors across Swale.  These include opportunities in the charity sector, at gyms, in offices, retail businesses, warehousing, Youth and Children’s & Families Services, engineering, healthcare, marketing, product design, HR and IT.

Businesses of all sizes can apply for the funding which covers 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant), associated employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions for each individual.

Placements can be offered and start any time before 31 December 2021, but funding is available up to 30th June 2022.  The cost of any additional training and support that’s required, and which will assist an individual secure permanent employment in the future, is also covered by the scheme.

James Perry & Partners Estate Agents, based in Sheerness, approached the Swale DWP team to offer several positions after hearing about the scheme.  Perry Hutchins, Director, explained how he feels “it is important for young people to be given opportunities to gain employment experience through schemes like Kickstart.  We are a very busy agency who felt we could benefit from having assistance with the administration involved in the sale of properties”.

“The Kickstart scheme is amazing. The three individuals we recruited are having a great time learning, developing workplace skills and have integrated well with the rest of our team.  They are a big asset to the business. The assistance they have provided has enabled us to reduce the time a transaction usually takes for our clients. The quality of service provided by the local and regional DWP teams has been truly exceptional and first class. I would recommend anybody considering the Kickstart scheme to contact their local DWP team ASAP.”

For more information please visit: Apply for a Kickstart Scheme grant - GOV.UK or contact the Swale DWP team via email swale.partnershipteam@dwp.gov.uk.